Caspers House

Casper’s House is a small ‘blurple’ holiday home in Tairua, New Zealand, for a family of four, several pets who travel and an interchangeable raft of guests. It was designed in response to the prevailing trend in New Zealand beach house design for white and timber -  drawing instead on the experimentation and associated freedoms of the mid-century Fire Island homes where daring forms concealed complex, layered interiors. The house is split into two steeply pitched forms. The main volume steps incrementally down the site, with the entrance and bathroom at the top, down a couple of steps to the kitchen and bedroom wing and then down several more to the lounge and balcony. The mezzanine sits above the lounge and doubles as a 3rd bedroom and extra lounge space. These staggered levels provide a range of spaces from the compact to the vertiginous while net floors, ladders, and secret openings make this perfect house for hide and seek. A vast expanse of glazing to the north and multiple skylights cast light across the uniformly blue interior - which dramatically oscillates in hue depending on the time of day. The combined effect of transient light and colour creates a constantly evolving and changing space to inhabit. The cladding is a translucent corrugated fibreglass rainscreen over magnesium oxide SIPs (Structural Insulated Panels) and painted timber battening, creating a geometric pattern under the skin and giving the exterior a visual depth. As light strikes the cladding from different angles the colour morphs from a light pink to a ghostly purple.